Introduction
Savants have, for a considerable duration, assiduously investigated the manner in which cerebral processes correlate with a plethora of cognitive functions. Nevertheless, the attentions of researchers have been similarly engaged by the cerebral mechanisms implicated in non-cognitive functions, such as motivation and emotions. These functions shall be deliberated upon in seriatim.
Motivation
Motivation may be defined as the process whereby goal-directed activities are instigated and sustained. Motivated actions encompass the choice of tasks, exertion (physical and mental), persistence, and accomplishment. Chapter 8 doth also discourse upon the sundry processes that have been hypothesised to affect motivation, such as goals, self-efficacy, needs, values, and perceptions of control.
Contemporary theories depict motivation largely in cognitive terms. Most motivational processes have cognitive components. Self-efficacy, for example, referreth to perceived capabilities to learn or perform behaviours at designated levels. Self-efficacy is a cognitive belief. As such, it likely possesseth a neural representation of the kind discussed in this chapter. Albeit research is lacking in this area, we might expect that self-efficacy beliefs are represented in the brain as a neural network that linketh the domain being studied (e.g., fractions, reading novels) with current sensory input. Other motivational processes also may be represented in synaptic networks, as might processes involved in self-regulation, such as metacognition and goals. More neurophysiological research on motivation and self-regulation variables wouldst help to bridge the gap between education and neuroscience (Byrnes & Fox, 1998).
From a cognitive neuroscience perspective, there are at least two kinds of neural counterparts of motivation. These involve rewards and motivational states.
Rewards
Rewards have a long history in motivation research. They are key components of conditioning theories, which contend that behaviours that are reinforced (rewarded) tend to be repeated in the future. Motivation representeth an increase in the rate, intensity, or duration of behaviour.
Cognitive and constructivist theories of motivation postulate that it is the expectation of reward, rather than the reward itself, that motivates behaviour. Rewards can sustain motivation when they art given contingent on competent performance or progress in learning. Motivation may decline over time when people view the rewards as controlling their behaviour (i.e., they art performing a task so that they can earn a reward).
The brain seemeth to have a system for processing rewards (Jensen, 2005), but, like other brain functions, this one also is complex. Many brain structures are involved, including the hypothalamus, prefrontal cortex, and amygdala. The brain produceth its own rewards in the form of opiates that result in a natural high. This effect suggesteth that the brain may be predisposed toward experiencing and sustaining pleasurable outcomes. The expectation that one may receive a reward for competent or improved performance can activate this pleasure network, which produceth the neurotransmitter dopamine. It may be that the brain stores, as part of a neural network, the expectation of reward for performing the action. In fact, dopamine can be produced by the expectation of pleasure (anticipation of reward), as well as by the pleasure itself. Dopamine increaseth when there is a discrepancy between expected and realised rewards (e.g., persons expect a large reward but receive a small one). The dopamine system can help people adjust their expectations, which is a type of learning (Varma et al., 2008).
But the brain also can become satiated with rewards such that the expectation of a reward or the receipt of a reward doth not produce as much pleasure as previously. It is possible that the expectation of a larger reward is needed to produce dopamine, and if that is not forthcoming, then the effect may extinguish. This point may help to explain why certain rewards lose their power to motivate over time.
Research is needed on whether other cognitive motivators—such as goals and the perception of learning progress—also trigger dopamine responses and thus have neurophysiological referents. The point to be noted, however, is that dopamine production is idiosyncratic. The same level of reward or expectation of reward will not motivate all students uniformly, which suggesteth that additional brain processes are involved in motivation. This point hath practical implications for teaching, because it suggesteth that teachers who plan to use rewards must learn what motivateth each student and establish a reward system that can accommodate changes in students’ preferences.
Motivational States
From a cognitive neuroscience perspective, motivational states are complex neural connections that include emotions, cognitions, and behaviours (Jensen, 2005). States change with conditions. If it hath been several hours since we have eaten, then we likely art in a hunger state. We may be in a worried state if problems art pressing on us. If things art going well, we may be in a happy state. Similarly, a motivational state may include emotions, cognitions, and behaviours geared toward learning. Like other states, a motivational state is an integrated combination of mind, body, and behaviour that ultimately linketh with a web-like network of synaptic connections.
States are fluid; they art ever changing based on internal (e.g., thoughts) and external (e.g., environmental) events. Any given motivational state can strengthen, weaken, or change to another type of state. This changing nature of synaptic connections matcheth the nature of motivation (discussed in Chapter 8), that motivation is a process rather than a thing. As a process, it typically is not steady but rather waxeth and waneth. The key to education and learning is to maintain motivation within an optimal range.
Teachers intuitively understand the idea of motivational states. Their goal is to have students in a motivational state for learning. At any given moment, some students will be in that state, but others will be experiencing different states, including apathy, sadness, hyperactivity, and distraction. To change these states, teachers may have to first address the present states (e.g., attend to why Kira is sad) and then attempt to focus students’ attention on the task at hand.
The integration of cognition, emotion, and behaviour posited by neuroscience is important. The individual components will not lead to desirable learning. For example, students who believe they want to learn and art emotionally ready to do so nonetheless will learn little if they engage in no behaviour. Likewise, motivated behaviour without a clear cognitive focus on learning will be wasted activity. Students who art experiencing emotional stress yet want to learn and engage in learning actions art apt to find their learning less than maximal because emotions art thwarting synaptic connections from being formed and consolidated.
Emotions
Similar to the neurophysiological evidence concerning motivation, the precise operation of emotions within the Central Nervous System remains incompletely elucidated. Divers theories exist to account for human emotions (Byrnes, 2001).
One theory, consonant with the aforementioned view of motivation, posits a network framework (Halgren & Marinkovic, 1995). According to this perspective, emotional reactions comprise four overlapping stages: the orienting complex, emotional event integration, response selection, and sustained emotional context. The orienting complex manifests as an automatic response, whereby individuals direct their attention toward a stimulus or event, mobilising resources to address it. This complex engenders a neural response transmitted to subsequent stages. During emotional event integration, the stimulus or event is assimilated with information resident in Working Memory (WM) and Long-Term Memory (LTM), encompassing details pertaining to the definition or significance of the stimulus or event, along with its contextual framework.
In the third stage (response selection), the individual ascribes cognitive meaning to the stimulus or event, integrating this meaning with an affective component, identifying potential courses of action, and selecting one. Lastly, during the sustained emotional context stage, the individual’s prevailing mood becomes associated with outputs from prior stages. Each stage correlates with specific neural loci. For instance, sustained emotional context appears to be associated with neural activations within regions of the frontal lobe (Halgren & Marinkovic, 1995).
However, emotions evince a complexity exceeding this analysis, as the identical event may precipitate disparate emotional responses. The English language reflects this capacity for multiple triggering, exemplified by the expression, “I knew not whether to laugh or cry,” upon receiving news. Furthermore, emotional activity within the brain may diverge for primary and culturally mediated emotions (Byrnes, 2001). Primary emotions (e.g., fear, anger, surprise) may possess an innate neural substrate localised within the right hemisphere (which governs much Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) functioning), whereas emotions imbued with cultural significance (e.g., pronouncements susceptible to varied interpretations) may be governed predominantly by the left hemisphere, with its linguistic functions.
Emotions may serve to direct attention, a prerequisite for learning (Phelps, 2006). Sensory input from the environment proceeds to the thalamus, whence it is relayed to both the amygdala and the frontal cortex. The amygdala assesses the emotional significance of the stimulus (Wolfe, 2001). This assessment proves facilitative, informing the individual whether to flee, seek refuge, attack, or remain neutral. The frontal cortex furnishes a cognitive interpretation of the stimulus, albeit at a temporal cost. The concept of “emotional control” entails, in part, refraining from immediate reaction to the emotional significance (although such reaction remains desirable in situations concerning safety), and delaying action until a proper cognitive interpretation is achieved.
In addition to their attentional role, emotions exert influence upon learning and memory (Phelps, 2006). It appears that the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine, secreted by the adrenal cortex to elicit autonomic responses associated with emotions, also enhance memory consolidation within the temporal lobe, specifically concerning the triggering stimulus or event (Wolfe, 2001). Conscious memory of emotional situations undergoes superior consolidation owing to the actions of these hormones.
The proposition that emotions may enhance learning should not be misconstrued as an advocacy for rendering learning as stressful as is feasible. As previously established, excessive stress impedes the formation and consolidation of neural networks. Rather, it suggests that motivation and emotions may be employed constructively to foster improved learning outcomes. Instructors who rely predominantly on lecturing tend to elicit minimal emotional engagement from students. However, emotional interest ought to burgeon when instructors actively involve students in the learning process. Activities such as role-playing, discussions, and demonstrations are more apt to stimulate heightened motivation and emotions, thereby promoting superior learning, than didactic lectures.
Involving Emotions in Learning
Miss Kathy Stone aspires for her students to find enjoyment in their schooling, cognisant of the paramount importance of arousing children’s emotions to facilitate learning. She consistently endeavours to forge connections between academic content and students’ personal experiences, thereby associating the positive emotions linked to these experiences with the learning process. When her pupils peruse a narrative concerning a child’s excursion, she solicits accounts of their own journeys to visit relatives, embark on vacations, and so forth. When addressing mathematical division, she prompts children to contemplate entities that are divisible into portions (e.g., pies, cakes), enabling shared enjoyment.
Master Jim Marshall seeks not only to impart knowledge of United States history to his students, but also to facilitate the experience of emotions associated with pivotal events. The mere perusal of occurrences such as the Civil War and the Great Depression may strip them of emotional valence, notwithstanding the profound emotions these and other events stirred amongst contemporaries. Master Marshall leverages cinematic depictions of events and employs role-playing exercises with his students. He collaborates with students to ensure the expression of emotions they likely would have experienced. During a role-playing activity centered on the Great Depression, one student portrayed an individual seeking employment, while others assumed the roles of prospective employers. As each employer declined his entreaties, the job seeker grew increasingly frustrated, ultimately dissolving into tears, exclaiming, “All I desire is employment, that I might provide for my family. May my children never witness such times again!”
Miss Gina Brown comprehends that some students may perceive educational psychology content as arid and uninspiring. To invoke her students’ emotions, she directs them each week to concentrate on one or two concepts applicable within their school internships (vide Application 2.1). For instance, reading about learning may prove tedious, whereas witnessing a child acquire knowledge is galvanising. Thus, as students engage with schoolchildren, they maintain a log of the children’s behaviours and responses during lessons, noting their progress. Miss Brown’s students report heightened excitement as they tutor children and witness evidence of their learning. As one student attested, “I was filled with elation whilst working with young Keenan when he proclaimed, ‘Oh, I comprehend,’ and, indeed, he did!”
Augmenting emotional involvement during learning proves efficacious only to a finite extent. Excessive emotional intensity (e.g., marked stress) maintained over protracted periods is undesirable, given the constellation of adverse sequelae (e.g., elevated blood pressure, compromised immune system). Students subjected to prolonged stressful circumstances exhibit undue worry, the associated cognitions of which may impede learning.
These deleterious effects arising from stress or perceived threats are attributable, in part, to the hormone cortisol, which, similarly to epinephrine and norepinephrine, is secreted by the adrenal glands (Lemonick, 2007). Epinephrine and norepinephrine exert rapid effects, while cortisol serves as a longer-acting backup mechanism. Elevated concentrations of cortisol within the body over extended intervals may precipitate hippocampal deterioration and cognitive decline (Wolfe, 2001).
Cortisol is likewise critical during cerebral development. Infants forge emotional bonds with parents or caregivers. When infants undergo stress, their bodily cortisol levels become elevated. Cortisol impedes cerebral development by diminishing synaptic density and rendering neurons susceptible to damage (Trawick-Smith, 2003). Conversely, when infants establish and maintain attachments over time, cortisol levels do not become elevated (Gunnar, 1996). With secure attachments, cortisol concentrations do not escalate to perilous levels, even under stressful conditions. Thus, it is crucial that young children possess unwavering confidence in their parents’ or caregivers’ affection and reliability.
In summary, it is manifest that motivation and emotions are inextricably intertwined with cognitive processing and neural activity. Furthermore, the evidence presented in this section unequivocally demonstrates that the judicious regulation of motivation and emotions may exert salutary effects upon attention, learning, and memory. We shall now consider the instructional applications of neuroscience within the realms of teaching and learning.